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When you say set up marks, what do you mean exactly? For my day in day out training with a group, in winter (no water) I try to run two marking setups. Typically a challenging double with a remote winger as the go-bird to allow the two other guns to retire. Then we run blinds. Summer time I try to set up one land and one water marking setup. If I'm just training with one other person we might run a series of four walking singles, it all depends.

trained with Clint on many a day where we would go out and run one set of marks or just a single blind, and then voila pack up the dogs and head home...but then again he might have been thinking about running that particular set all day long or waiting to run a particular blind when the conditions were just right..

All my Exes live in Texas

Originally Posted by lanse brown

A few things that I learned still ring true. "Lanse when you get a gift, say thank you and walk away. When you get a screwing walk away. You are going to get a lot more screwings than gifts"

When you say set up marks, what do you mean exactly? For my day in day out training with a group, in winter (no water) I try to run two marking setups. Typically a challenging double with a remote winger as the go-bird to allow the two other guns to retire. Then we run blinds. Summer time I try to set up one land and one water marking setup. If I'm just training with one other person we might run a series of four walking singles, it all depends.

John

I am just talking about set ups, not markes to "teach" a concept, but marks that cover concepts already taught.

I am just talking about set ups, not markes to "teach" a concept, but marks that cover concepts already taught.

All marks should be set-up to teach the dog something and how to fight a factor i.e. wind, hill side, short gun, under the arch, through the old fall area. We are always thinking of new marks and bird placement for building better marking dogs. I very rarely test any of my dogs. That comes the day of the trial, and if the training is done correct. The dogs will pass the test and at least finish the trial.
Young trainers get to hung up on winning training day and testing thier dogs, not training.

If your not teaching a concept what are you doing

Cold Creek Gundogs
The more I'm on the internet the more I love my dogs.

In ideal conditions I usually find that a dog has about 6-7 good retrieves in them per half day session and maybe 2-3 more if training is spaced out all day.(less than ideal = less retrieves). Beyond that fatigue increases and attention span decreases often resulting in confusion and frustration. How many of those are marks, of any type, vs blinds is dependent upon dog's need, grounds and personel.